Reviews by Natty Mark Samuels
Ubunye, Kwassa Kwassa DJs
Natty Mark Samuels
Listening to the band tonight, took me back to Berlin the summer after the Wall came
down, when I heard The Zawinal Syndicate in the Quasimodo. That same level of topranking musicianship, enjoying ...
6 months ago
Ubunye, Kwassa Kwassa DJs
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
The Cowpea Chronicle: a review of The Adventures of Asuom by John B. A. Agandin
All over, they speak of Anansi: Ghana, Surinam, Jamaica, Grenada, other countries in the Greater and Lesser Antilles, ...
2 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
Tales of Aetiology - a review of Pamela Kola's 'East African When Stories'
One day, in a time of reasoning, a vulture, an eagle and a crow, took the initiative, formed a diplomatic triumvirate, and ...
2 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
A Review of Caves of Nazimbuli, by Steve
Chimombo.
As soon as I saw the title, I placed it on my list of books to review. For me, caves in African folklore mean first and foremost the Nunu. ...
2 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
Master Storyteller: a review of Stories From Uganda by James Appe
These stories contain the ingredients of our lives. The gentleness of Kenyi and the arrogance of Hare, in the story named after ...
2 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
Shouting ''Adedeji'' - a review of Moonlight Stories, by Remi Adedeji
We are not told where the Moonlight Stories are from, but due to the author's name, references to Ifa and a place called ...
2 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
A Melody for Peace - a poem for Desmond Tutu by Natty Mark Samuels
Come Liyongo,Let us work together,Traversing the continent,Inviting the great poets,To an evening reading down south.On the ...
2 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
Homage
Come with me to the Art Cafe,
Up the stairs to the first floor.
Where the walls are festooned with Africa,
So you'll be glad you stepped through the door.
The Art Cafe in central ...
2 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
Let me take this opportunity to introduce a trailblazing acronym to you. You already know of BLM, so let me smile, while I tell you of BWW: Black Women Walking. In May of this year, four women of ...
3 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
When last did you read a book that you couldn't put down? It happened to me the other day. I began it on the coach to London, continued on the underground, only pausing when I got to my sister’s, ...
3 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
What words come to mind, when the word Tuesday is mentioned? To all those of a certain age, it will probably be the Rolling Stones classic 'Ruby Tuesday.' Previously, I would have made the same ...
3 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
" l'm a seafood man. Fish is good: l love fish." This is the answer l got from Ras Wally, when l asked him about his favourite food. Resident in Barton for the last two years, he formerly served for ...
4 years ago
African Treasury
African Treasury
Natty Mark Samuels
If l should ask you dear reader, what is your favourite day of the weekend, Saturday or Sunday, which would you say? For me, l would say Sunday. Because on that day, in his dad's back garden, l ...
4 years ago
African Treasury
Oxford Dub Club
Natty Mark Samuels
It's always good to return to an old haunt of joyful memories - and so it was on Saturday night, with the return of roots reggae to East Oxford Community Centre, for the first session of the Oxford ...
4 years ago
Oxford Dub Club
The Gift
Natty Mark Samuels
The Yoruba are the largest ethnicity in south-west Nigeria; founders of some of the great city states of medieval Africa, as well as producers of some of the greatest art. In modern times, the ...
4 years ago
The Gift
An Evening With The Maasai
Natty Mark Samuels
Did you ever see a Maasai man, dance to roots reggae music? As part of the week-long celebration of Maasai culture organised by Insightshare, with support from the Pitt Rivers Museum, there was an ...
4 years ago
An Evening With The Maasai
Hugo Makepeace, Nico D, Garvin Dan
Natty Mark Samuels
He is affectionately known as 'Everywhere Man', for wherever reggae is played in Oxford, or in the villages and towns of the county, you will often see the name Garvin Dan on the publicity posters ...
4 years ago
Hugo Makepeace, Nico D, Garvin Dan
Nabawanuka Creations
Natty Mark Samuels
As I walked into the Fusion Arts exhibition area, my eyes were immediately attracted by the blue spangling – dark blues and lighter ones, interspersed with red, green and black – of a mosaic of ...
4 years ago
Nabawanuka Creations
Stalag Happy
Natty Mark Samuels
When I think of the artwork of Sir Terry Frost, I think of colours and vibrancy. The painting called Sun and Boats; the silkscreen print entitled Sun Tree. This is the work of a man eternally ...
12 years ago
Stalag Happy
Black History Month Special feat. Teddy Dan
Natty Mark Samuels
With the recent release of Teddy Dan's latest album Outta Shasamane, we have a great third addition, completing the Teddy Dan Trilogy. Teddy Dan remains for me the Rasta Emissary, ...
13 years ago
Black History Month Special feat. Teddy Dan
Uprising
Natty Mark Samuels
Fabian Audifferen said it was "inspirational"; Zyron Gabbidon, that it was "very educational". Simeon Brown stated that it was "something to benefit from".Three young people of the thirteen, that ...
13 years ago
Uprising
Two and Two
Natty Mark Samuels
It's good to get an email that gives you a link to something special, as happened to me today. I received a link to a short film by Babak Anvari, an Iranian-born film director; entitled Two and ...
13 years ago
Two and Two
Sancho: An Act of Remembrance
Natty Mark Samuels
When I think of Iganatius Sancho, I think of a man blessed with buoyancy. A man who bounced back from illiteracy, to become a celebrated man of letters. Bounced back from orphanhood, to become a ...
13 years ago
Sancho: An Act of Remembrance
Flesh and Blood
Natty Mark Samuels
I don't know what Unique John-Welch has decided for a career; but if she's in limbo, looking at options, I hope the idea of acting is high on the list. For it is her performance that stood out for ...
13 years ago
Flesh and Blood
Immeasureable
Natty Mark Samuels
From the first performance, a song by the truly brave Hannah Graham, those of us who gathered in the Glow Hall in Blackbird Leys for the Grand Finale of the C.D.I. Youth Summer project were treated ...
13 years ago
Immeasureable
Cadillac Records [12A]
Natty Mark Samuels
I'd never thought about Beyonce till the other night, when I attended the latest showing from the Black Screen, called Cadillac Records. A cinematic necessity, which she produced and co-starred ...
13 years ago
Cadillac Records [12A]
Reggae for a Reason
Natty Mark Samuels
It's good when generations gather together, especially when they gather to support a community project, raising awareness of suffering and supporting its alleviation by a donation of money. This ...
13 years ago
Reggae for a Reason
A Raisin in the Sun
Natty Mark Samuels
The great Lorraine Hansberry was only twenty-nine when she wrote A Raisin in the Sun. It was the first play written by an African American to be produced on Broadway. She became the youngest American ...
13 years ago
A Raisin in the Sun
